Rating: 
Summary: A Book of Splendor - Not!
Review: Both the jacket cover and inside blurb led me to believe that The Book of Splendor would be a splendid read. It proved a major disappointment, despite an array of interesting characters and some vivid description of Prague in the early 1600s.
I find it hard to believe that the author is a professor of English, since much of the dialogue and plotting in The Book of Splendor is laboured and awkward. Moreover, Ms. Sherwood's account of Prague just does not ring true and the story itself is less than compelling. For a much more fascinating look at Rudolph's Prague and his passion for collecting I recommend Ross King's Ex-Libris.
Ms. Sherwood is a careless writer who was not served well by her editors at W.W. Norton. She consistently refers to "magi" as a singular noun ( I would have preferred magus) and misspells Prague's Celetna Street as Celentna Street (the book's inside map does spell this street correctly). Many of the foreign words and expressions scattered liberally throughout the book, and some details of the plot as well, should have been cleaned up prior to publication.
The author touches ever so briefly on some of the seminal events of European intellectual history, like the execution of Giordano Bruno in 1600, but only manages to marginalize and trivialize them with her tepid narrative skills and flacid dialogue. I have just started Michael White's story of Giordano Bruno entitled The Pope and the Heretic and find here
the love of learning and religious conviction which I found so lacking in The Book of Splendor.
Rating: 
Summary: an excellent read
Review: I was lucky enough to be introduced to this book by attending one of Frances Sherwood's readings. So I can hear the whole story in her voice, which is an added pleasure for me.This book is a great read, whether you generally go for historical fiction or not. It will keep you in your chair turning pages until long after your hot tea goes cold. The characters are engaging, wonderfully strange at times, and their lives are moving. Sherwood captures the intensity of life in the threatened Jewish community of Prague. The suspense created by their uncertain fate keeps the story rolling. Emperor Rudolph II is one of the most memorable quirky characters you're likely to encounter. He's both an historical personage and a freshly realized person. The colorful historical detail is balanced by a powerful story that has the authority and charm of a folk tale (for adults). The book has received endless praise in the major reviews. Richard Eder in the NY Times makes the point that the book is wise as well as fun. That's true. On the other hand, don't let the fact that the book is a brilliant piece of "literature" scare you away from the pure reading pleasure. There's plenty of fantasy and drama in this book, too.
Rating: 
Summary: The Book of Splendor is splendid!
Review: I'd never been to Prague until I read Frances Sherwood's novel The Book of Splendor set there in 1601. Now I feel I lived there four centuries ago thanks to her vivid rendering of the city and its inhabitants both real and imaginary. Sherwood has a way of building with detail so that the reader becomes completely surrounded by the entire construct: floors, walls, ceilings, exteriors, interiors. The small literary circle I belong to chose this book and though historical fiction is usually not my cup of tea, I found it a fast-paced, lively read. One friend whose hobby is East European history and who has spent lots of time in Prague during the last ten years was impressed with its historical and geographical accuracy. I found the heroine charming and the story which cleverly includes the myth of the Golem very engaging.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Light Reading
Review: If you aren't overly concerned with historical detail, then this book might be good, light reading material. It moves along at a good pace. The descriptions of Prague in the 1600s is captivating. The only character who seemed to have any depth was the emporer, who I don't think the author wanted to be the main character. The Jewess, Rochel, is simply not a very developed character, making it difficult for the reader to identify with her or care very much about what happens to her. While her plight was interesting at a certain level for me, I didn't really "get into her skin". There is more comedy in this book than I had imagined, and that was appreciated. I don't think the author took this book extremely seriously, and the brevity helped me get through the book. I also was bothered somwhat by the lack of historical accuracy. More modern terms, such as "hold your horses", and other slang phrases seemed out of place and more distracting to the story. Truly, the author should have left them out completely. This book is not deep, nor is it overwhelming. It is a nice companion to take along to the beach or those long train/plane rides. Enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Not So Slendid
Review: If you liked Avram Davidson, you'll probably like this, too. If you haven't read Avram Davidson, try this - it's worth reading. If you like it, then consider trying Davidson, as well.
Rating:
Summary: A glorious tumult of passion and comedy
Review: In 1601, Rabbi Judah Loew fashioned a golem from river mud and breathed life into the giant figure to save his Prague community from the Jew-hating townspeople and the whims of a half-mad emperor. From this legend Sherwood builds a magical, earthy tale of passion, the loneliness of difference and the timeless, fruitless search for earthly immortality.
The novel opens with the wedding of the orphan seamstress Rochel to the older shoemaker Zev. Though grateful, she finds him physically repugnant. Then one day she meets the eyes of a handsome giant. Beyond the physical attraction, they recognize a kinship of otherness - the golem without a tongue and the daughter of a Cossack rape - and a passion for the details of life, like the play of light on a leaf, the song of a bird, a rainbow in a mud puddle.
Meanwhile, the petulant Emperor Rudolph II, wallowing in luxury and self-importance, surrounded by scientists like Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, botches a suicide attempt and decides he must live forever. To this end he summons alchemists and magicians and the rabbi who created life from mud. Knowing they will die when their impossible task is complete, the alchemists put on a splendid, desperate show. Rabbi Loew, facing the massacre of his community, approaches his task more somberly, but with equal ingenuity.
As tensions build between Christians and Jews, Catholics and reformers, the emperor sinks deeper into madness, and Rochel and the golem struggle against their passion. With the plot driven by petty, grasping minds, ugly rages and great passions - as well as a few serious ideas, good souls and quick thinkers - the novel mingles comedy and pathos, set in a muddy, stinking, pestilential city brightened by the beauty of art, nature and human joy.
Sherwood's ("Green," "Vindication," a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award) irreverent, muscular prose is up to the task; witness the emperor's birth:
"His mother refused myrrh and valerian root, Turkish poppy, did not even take a drink of water, but bore her pain, which she thought her Christian obligation, although no woman was ever sainted for giving birth, save Mary."
Rating:
Summary: Fanciful and yet real
Review: The thing I loved most about this book was the fact that no one questioned the golem. Magic simply seemed to exist in everyday life (in fact, the emperor demanded it), and I loved that feeling, especially when it was set in old, old Prague. The historical inaccuracies were vaguely under-the-skin annoying, but they served their purpose in the furthering of the novel's plot and characters, so all was easily forgiven.
Rating:
Summary: A Book not Splendid
Review: The Zohar, or "Book of Splendor" is the central work of Jewish mysticism. In common with most forms of mysticism, Jewish mysticism encourages an experiential, contemplative approach to the divine. In Judaism, the Zohar and contemplative practices often served as a counterweight to the rationalistic approach of philosophers such as Maimonides. Rabbi Jacob Lowe of early 17th century Prague was a leading scholar and practicioner of Jewish mysticism. He figures prominently in Frances Sherwood's novel, "The Book of Splendor". As recounted in this book, Rabbi Lowe had difficulty, with all his efforts, in capturing something of a transcendental experience. He does so near the close of this novel. For all its origins in the deep world of mysticism and contemplation, this novel falls far short. Sherwood describes her book as a "historical fantasy." The book is neither a historical novel because of the fanciful elements it includes nor a work of unfettered imagination because of the attempt to root it in a historical period and in historical event. The two elements, the history and the fantasy, are ineffectively combined, and the story, for me, collapses under its own weight.
Furthermore the book is more than a historical novel and a fantasy. It includes strong elements of polemic. The polemic is the weakest part of the book and contributes strongly to the dissatisfaction I felt with it. The book is set in Prague in 1600. A major theme of the book is Jewish-Christian relations. The Jews were begrudgingly allowed to live in Prague. In this book, they live precariously in a ghetto and are live in constant danger from the government as well as from peasants and hostile townspeople and clergy that the government cannot effectively control. The book also has as a major character the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II who ruled Prague at the time. The book portrays his combination of madness and evil. Rudolph wishes to become immortal and enlists the help of alchemists from England as well as Rabbi Lowe. The book includes as side-characters Tycho Brahe and Jonathan Kepler who become leading figures in the incipient scientific enlightenment. The book has as its chief female character a young woman named Rochel of uncertain origins. She marries a cobbler named Zev who is substanially older. Rochel respects but does not, for most of the book love Zev. These disparate plots are tied together by the legend and figure of the golem. The golem is a legendary creature that was said to have been created by Rabbi Loew to save the Jewish community from harm in Prague. The golem does that in this book. He also does much else, including becoming the lover of Rochel and allowing her, the story goes, to come to some form of peace with herself. The story is cluttered, slow moving and does not hold together. I found the various components of the story working at cross-purposes to each other making the book confusing and unfocused. The most unconvincing portions of the book, and the portions which receive the most attention in the novel, are those involving the young woman Rochel and her relationship with the golem. I want to discuss this briefly. The character of Rochel I found entirely anacronistic in a historical novel of this period or in a historical fantasy. I mentioned that this book has strong elements of polemic, and Rochel is a polemical figure. Rochel is a poor, illiterate woman who has been raised by her grandmother. When she makes her marriage with Zev, we find that she is impatient with her lot. Through her voice, Sherwood makes many criticisms of the status of women and of the alleged patriarchial character of the Judaism of the day of the story. I find these criticism out of place for a novel of this time period. Rochel bemoans her illiteracy and dreams of becoming a scholar. She objects the the practice of the traditional Judaism of her day that required women to cut their hair and wear wigs. She objects to the Jewish rituals of purification for women. She finds her husband's lovemaking efforts clumsy and unrewarding. She longs for passion in her life. In a book that focuses heavily on the precarious character of Jewish ghetto life and that also tries to portray the Jewish experience positively and warmly, I found this proto-20th century feminism distracting and out of place. Rochel does not come alive in the book, and I had no sympathy for her many adventures and distresses in the course of the novel. After Rabbi Loew creates the golem, a relationship develops between Rochel and the creature. They have an affair, after which Rochel is condemned as an adulteress both by most of the Jewish community and by the Christian community outside the ghetto. Given the time and place of the story, and the strong biblical prohibitions against adultery, the book fails to convince me that the public reaction, Jewish and Christian, was entirely wrong or out of place for the time. The affair between Rochel and the golem, a creature of legend, is implausible and unconvincing. Further, I felt uncomfortable with what, to me, the author was conveying in her story of a passion between a beautiful but frustrated young woman and a robot, for want of a better word. I found that by making the golem an outlet for Rochel's passion, the book deprecates the relationship between women and men. More specifically, the story -- and the liasion the author creates between Rochel and the golem -- deprecates men. It makes an assumption, common to other literature of this type that I have read, that men are themselves incapable of a loving responsible relationship with a woman. This is why, I think, Rochel comes to herself in this book after the affair with the golem, rather than with, say, a relationship with a human being -- a man, whether a Jewish man within the ghetto or a non-Jewish man outside it. Too much of this book is simply a chapter in the modern version of the war between the sexes set in Prague in 1600. As I indicated, the sexual polemic does not fit well with the historical setting of the book or with the sympathy the author tries to convey for Jewish life in the ghetto in these times. In summary, the novel moves very slowly and I grew impatient with it. I didn't find the book enjoyable or elevating to read. The various components of the story don't hang together well. The story of the golem is a rather overworked legend at best and it doesn't work well in the context of this novel. The book is spoiled by its use of too many overtly feminist themes during a time and a place in which these themes did not and could not have played a large role. I enjoyed reading the various comments of the other Amazon reviewers of this book. For me the book was a disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Not so good
Review: This book was disappointing, not only were there too many characters to follow, the historic picture of Prague in 1601 was not believable. The attempt by the author to bring magical realism into the story if half-hearted, and completely ridiculous. Maybe with a little more background on Jewsih Mysticism this could be integral to the book, but it just seems to be stuck in for the convenience of the story. If you are really interested in 1600's Prague, don't read this. If you are really interested in Jewish Mysticism, don't read this. If you are looking for a good historical fiction read, don't read this.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, delightful novel
Review: This is just a wonderful, delightful book. Frances Sherwood has a unique writing style. Her writing is so colorful and rich that the characters and the city of Prague seem so real and so vivid. I also enjoyed how she intermingled history with fiction in a way that delights rather than bores the reader. It is truly a wonderful book.
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